CHANEL
A Brand Analysis
First published in 2009 by Christina Kinnear. Text, book design and layout copyright Christina Kinnear.
2009
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing of the Publisher. The right of Christina Kinnear to be identified as the Author of the text of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. ISBN: 1 57446 846 2
During my time in Kรถln I attended a Brand Talking seminar. During this seminar we were split into groups and each given a brand to investigate. My group consisted of Karsten Schmidt, a student from kisd, Enric Martinez Martin, an exchange student from Spain and Martina Seefeld an exchange student from Brazil and our brand was Chanel. Each week our class would discuss various topics associated with branding and then in between we would apply our learnings to our own brand and create presentations for the rest of the class of our findings. We worked through a lot of aspects and by the end I felt we had a well rounded brand analysis of Chanel.
A Word To The Wise
"Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only; fashion is something in the air. It's the wind that blows in the new fashion; you feel it coming, you smell it...in the sky, in the street; fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening." Coco Chanel
Initial Findings
Firstly our group was asked to generate our own thoughts on Chanel without doing
any research. Our initial thoughts were that Chanel appears to be two brands: one is a classy and luxurious brand provoked by seductive adverts and haute-couture fashion shows while the other is a cheap and trashy brand provoked through fake replicas and mass markets accessories. Through these two brands we feel two markets are created: the classy brand has an aura of being expensive and Parisian and attracts wealthy women aged 30-50 who will often trust Chanel and are therefore loyal customers. However, the trashy brand attracts mass market customers who buy mainly to show others they are buying Chanel and therefore wear it in a very flashy way. We also felt that Chanel creates clothes which seem to be wearable fashion compared to the over extreme catwalk styles of some designers. With regards to the market place we feel Chanel is at a status with the 'high brands' in all the sectors it appears in. With regards to market competitors we felt that these brands have such a high status that they probably don't compete but have areas in which they are the experts. In order to display our thoughts to the class we created a SWOT analysis.
S - strengths wide range of collections good marketing company unique packaging classy, elegant, luxurious connotations
credit crunch price is only for the Chanel name
infamous name creates brand confidence survived throughout the decades high quality production.
T - threats
W - weaknesses younger version babies and children's version prescription glasses sector
O - opportunities
can be a bit 'flashy' at times lots of fake replicas can be seen as an older brand too expensive, too posh connotations
Brand Architecture
One of our topics was brand architecture and we discussed various brands and discovered who they were owned by and how many sub-brands existed. When looking into Chanel we discovered that it is a single brand with no other sub-brands and therefore is an extremely unique brand. We decided to map out Chanels' brand architecture through the different products and markets it appears in.
Platinum Gabrielle Bonheur 'Coco' Chanel SilverGold 1910 Remixed Chanel Bags By Fashion Fine Jewellery Contemporary Artist Jewelery
Jewellery
Fashion
1932 Gemstones Diamond
Haute Couture
PrĂŠt-A-Porter
For Men Also
Fragrance
Karl Lagerfeld
Photographer
Body Powder
Gift Body Lotion Sets
15 Different Perfumes
Scarves Gloves Hats Umbrella Belts Fashion Watches Shoes
Bags
I Phone Chanel Application Podcast
Eye wear
Optical Sunglasses
Mobile Art Space By Zaha Hadid Anti-Age
Skin Care
Cosmetics
Bath And Shower Gel
Timeless Watches Leather J12 Line Accessories Purses / Diaries
Art
Facial Cream
Eyes, Lips, Nails Make-Up Master Classes
Snowboard Fishing Bike Sport Kit Skiis
Tennis Racket
Position in the Market
Looking into the market place and working out where different brands lie we applied this knowledge to our own brand Chanel. We discovered that despite our initial thoughts that Chanel would lie within the high end of the market place, thus making it a luxury brand, Chanel actually occupies a larger market and makes most of its' money within the mass market. In this section of the market Chanel sells products like perfume and make-up as an affordable but seemingly luxury mass market product. Therefore the mass market buy these products and by doing so buy into the idea of Chanel - the `chanel tat does exist in the high end market place selling a variety of products.
High Quantity
i phone application, web profiles
key rings, fashion jewellery
perfumes, make-up bags, clothes, jewellery
Low Price
haute couture
Low Quantity
High Price
Different Types of Brands
We discovered that there are many different types of brands out there and defining what categories a brand fits into can be tricky. Therefore we investigated each type of brand to gain a better idea of what each were and therefore we found it easier to identify which categories our brand chanel fitted into.
Brand Types
Companies Institution Association Organization Social Group
Product
Brand Architecture
Monolithic Endorsed Branded Flexible Free Combined
Retail Medium
Mass
Brand Categories
Meta
Personality
Intangible
Origin
Intentional
Place
Landmark
Luxury
Premium
Event
Service
Brand Class
E-Brand Sub Brand Private Label Discount Irregular
Brand Conclusion
For me, Chanel is an exceptional brand which spans a wide range or products and a variety of markets yet still manages to keep an air of luxury. I feel purchasing a Chanel product can be summed up in a quote by Grant McCracken: "the motivation for the exceptional purchase is usually anticipatory. It arrives as a 'front runner'. The good is purchased in anticipation of the eventual purchase of a much larger package of goods, attitudes and circumstances of which it is a piece. These purchases are long contemplated and looked forward to. Usually they include 'high involvement' goods such as a car, a watch, an article of clothing, a perfume, a special foodstuff. Individuals buy them in order to take possession of a small concrete part of the style of life to which they aspire." Grant McCracken, Culture and Consumption, Indiana University Press, USA, 1990
Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Professor Paolo Tumminelli who taught the Brand Talking seminar from which the content for this book was created. I would also like to thank my fellow Chanel group members: Enric Martinez Martin, Martina Seefeld and Karsten Schmidt.